Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

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UNDERGRAD Undergrad is the Divine Will that determines our fates hut lets us think that we are dependent only on our own Free Wills. Meeting with Miss McBride, Undergrad decides to levy a light cur- few after midnight because of John L. ' s United Mine strike, and forces us to read twenty Shake- speare plays by the one light burning in the John the night before Sprague ' s quiz. It nurtures all the traditions, supervises all the clubs and organizations, dishing out funds when they go bust. Undergrad, in turn, sticks the student body for the dollars to do it with, which always causes a great groan when Pay Day is posted including Common Treasury dues. Back in the dark ages, Undergrad ran cotil- lions to which the girls, all dressed up in their finery, went to dance with one another. In the 20 ' s, when the students began to feel silly bunny-hugging with their roommates, the Board began to sponsor dances with real live men — a fashion that has not yet gone out. We have lived to see the day when the Cur- riculum Committee petitioned to have a four day holiday over Thanksgiving and got it, in 1947. We have wrangled in a mass meeting over Big May Day and voted to discard it as an out- dated Elizabethan festival. We have enjoyed ourselves at the Miss Lonely Hearts Dance with Penn and Villanova, so we are quite content to have our fates in the hands of Undergrad. . . . and we hope you ' ll get us all dates and a place to stay. We ' ll be there at about 4:30. Don ' t know what train yet, but I guess you can get some- one to meet us. By the way, our tenor is only 5 ' 2 . And don ' t worry about the hooch — we ' ll take care of that. Looking forward to our introduction to Bryn Mawr. — The Nassenpoofs. ALLIANCE The Alliance is only eight years old. A baby born eleven days before Pearl Harbor, it was set up to promote undergraduate defense activity. During the war it marched in step with the GIs, sponsoring Red Cross hospital and canteen work, knitting and bandage rolling, and in 1945 had to reconvert with the rest of the world, to peace. Today it has its finger in every national and international pie, from recruiting poll-watchers for presidential elections to sending clothes abroad for the cold in Europe. It brings speakers to Goodhart for whom it is well worth arising the half hour earlier — or forgetting and sleeping through breakfast so that we arrive at 8:30 classes still buttoning our sweaters, only to find the professor has forgotten too! The Alliance not only watches over every po- litical group on campus from the Student Fed- eralists to the International Relations Club, but works for CARE, the World Students Service Fund, the Industrial Group, and sponsors Cur- rent Events speakers weekly in the Common Room. In short, although we live in an Ivory Tower, the Alliance never lets us forget that there is an outside world in desperate confusion, and appropriates $7.50 from our aUowances to help put it to rights. Page nineteen

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LEAGUE Don ' t worry, baby, I ' ll pay your fine. SELF - GOV. If you give young women self -government Bryn Mawr will be closed within six months, prophesied ex-president Eliot of Harvard. In spite of the odds, the first self-gov. in any women ' s college was organized at Bryn Mawr in 1892, and despite the girl who went before the board with the excuse for being late that the motor dropped out of her date ' s car, Self-Gov. is still going strong. Early rules were decorous. Stockings were not to be rolled down on any conditions and men were not admitted to plays because some of the actresses would be wearing trousers. Chaperon- age was strict, but in ' 17 a brother over 18 was recognized as a suitable chaperon, so long as Sis ' roommate was not along to tempt him. Bryn Mawr was the first women ' s college to allow smoking on campus, and because it was so liberal, as far back as ' 05 Bryn Mawr was thought fast and free. Rumors that the girls smoked, wined and gambled went hand-in-hand with its blue-stocking reputation. Even today sister colleges are aghast to learn that we can go out, if escorted, any and every night till 2. And we, self-conscious about our freedom, are contin- ually irked by the realization that seniors at Mt. Holyoke can have cars. This best argument in favor of this for us too is the worn-out condition of Haverford tires! In 1910 the Christian Association was born from the union of two organizations: The Chris- tian Union, a philanthropic club criticized as works without faith and the Bryn Mawr League for the Service of Christ, a religious organization equally criticized as faith without works. This occurrence caused such a burst of religious fervor that the student body marched in a joyful procession around campus, singing Onward Christian Soldiers at the top of their lungs. But by 1926, interest was lagging. At the end of their tether, the students suggested con- verting the Christian Association to the League for social services and religious activities on campus . Today, the religious activities are dele- gated to the Chapel Committee, and the League concentrates on social work on and off campus. So, after years of fumbling in the dark, the League has found its raison d ' etre and is here to stay. The League not only collects money for the Bryn Mawr Summer Camp and the Hudson Shore Labor School, but collects soda-jerkers, readers for the Blind School and counsellors for the Summer Camp. They send Red Cross workers to the Valley Forge Army Hospital, volunteers for the Home for Incurables and the Haverford Community Center. But, best of all, they super- vise the classes and carolling of the maids and porters, and direct the Gilbert Sullivan op- eretta that never fails to bring down the house. Page eighteen

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■Ml i |1 ' Hs T - 5b1 H ,«• ., • » 7WZ£W ASSOCIATION In the good old days, despite cumbersome skirts with kneeJength bloomers underneath and long black stockings, athletics played a notably more important part in college life. In the 20 ' s the whole college used to turn out to watch knickered Bryn Mawr girls play other female institutions, and inter- class rivalry was at its peak. Unfortunately, now- adays the only girls who pursue an avid interest in sports after their sophomore year are those who flunked the freshman swimming test or the winter term sport because of Show rehearsals, and some muscle-bound upperclassmen who thrive on varsity hockey. A.A. was established in 1891. It levied dues and enlisted student labor in keeping up the fields, manuring, raking leaves, levelling, and weeding and sweeping the tennis courts at an hourly rate of 25 cents. All freshmen had to learn how to come down a rope, if not to climb it, in case of fire, or other emergency (knotted sheets for a late date, no doubt ! ) And a rough sport, water polo was most popular in the new pool, played wearing bathing suits with sleeves and bloomers. However, today if Haverford or Princeton ' s Cap Gown or Ivy clubs will challenge us, we will all get out to defend our goal, and they, fortified with beer and a freer use of their sticks, usually defeat the weaker sex. Some brave souls, with much bat- ting of eyelashes, have even been known to suggest a swim in the pool to a date ; but a Bryn Mawr girl in a tank suit doesn ' t look much like Dorothy Lamour in a sarong. Page twenty